One of Monica Lewinsky's former fellow interns has defended her right to speak out again about her affair with President Clinton.

'I do feel bad for her because she was young. I don’t blame her for coming forward now and saying, "I was tormented. I was bullied,"' Nicole Maffeo Russo said.

Ms Russo was one year older than Lewinsky, who she called 'the portly pepperpot' in an interview with The Boston Herald, and spoke with her frequently when they were both part of the intern program.

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Former coworkers: Nicole Maffeo Russo (right) worked with Monica Lewinsky (pictured left in 2011) through the White House internship program and she said she heard rumors about the affair when it was happening

The 1998 sex scandal has come back into the spotlight as Lewinsky, now 40, has broken her decades-long silence and told her side of the story to Vanity Fair.

'Some of my former colleagues are like, "Do we really have to go through this again?" But at this point it’s like 20 years later, haven’t we all been curious about what she’s been up to?' Ms Russo said.

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This isn't the first time that Ms Russo has spoke about the affair, as she was one of the first people to speculate about it when it was actually happening.

'I told everyone I knew about the rumors. I told my mother. I told my college roommates. I told people in bars... That’s probably how I wound up in front of the grand jury,' she told The Herald.

Back in the spotlight: Lewinsky penned a tell-all article about her life after the scandal for this month's Vanity Fair

At the time, she 'was pissed' that she got flown to Washington for the hearing because she felt shew as being asked to 'spread my gossip to the grand jury'.

Since then, Ms Russo has moved to Boston and works as a restaurant and hospitality public relations specialist. The anger about the scandal and ensuing investigation has died down but curiosity about her former friend remains.

One of the regrets she holds on to, however, is that the prestige of a White House internship has been forever dampened.

Office gossip: Unlike Linda Tripp who met Monica Lewinsky after she was transferred to the Pentagon, Ms Russo worked with her in the White House

Moving on: Ms Russo now lives in Boston and works as a public relations specialist for restaurants and hospitality

Ms Russo's musings come after Lewinsky wrote the tell-all article as a way to re-enter public life after staying 'virtually reclusive' during Hillary Clinton's first presidential run in 2008.

'I put off announcing several media projects in 2012 until after the election. (They were subsequently canceled—and, no, I wasn’t offered $12million for a salacious tell-all book, contrary to press reports,) ' Lewinsky wrote in the Vanity Fair article.

'And recently I’ve found myself gun-shy yet again, fearful of ‘becoming an issue’ should she decide to ramp up her campaign. But should I put my life on hold for another 8 to 10 years?